Political scapegoating is officially back in style. As tends to happen following an event like the one seen in this past weekend in Connecticut, the possibility of causality with violent media in all forms, whether games or movies, has once again been called into question.
The latest political figure in a long line to take the subject in his cross hairs is West Virginia's Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who during an interview with WV Metro News, suggested banning Grand Theft Auto 5. I suggest you listen to the clip in its entirety, or you can skip ahead to the 1:40 mark to hear the Senator say it for himself.
No surprise when in another interview, Manchin referenced his "friend" Joe Lieberman, who has a long and storied history of crusading against violent video games. After Mortal Kombat and Night Trap made waves in the news for their content in the early 90's, Sen. Lieberman led a hearing on violence in videogames that led to the creation of the ESRB, the body responsible for the rating system on videogames.
To be fair, Manchin is trying to keep all his bases covered, calling for "everything to be on the table" to be addressed as potential causes for these "tragic crimes, including mental health treatment, military-style assault weapons and high capacity magazines, and our culture, which seems to glorify violence more than ever in our video games and movies."
What is interesting to note however, is that Manchin is a proud member of the NRA, typically seen as a much more conservative group. I do find it odd that Manchin has aligned himself with both Sen. Lieberman as well as the NRA, given their policies seem to be diametrically opposed of late. Lieberman has called for a ban on assault style weapons, whereas the NRA, would surely be against such an idea. They've remained fairly quiet lately (perhaps rightly so), but they have scheduled a conference to for later this morning.
The gun debate is not one to be had here, nor are any sentiments involving the NRA, as this is not the forum for it. But it's telling that among all the issues Manchin lists that should be re-evaluated, whether it's from news interview, or his own press releases, violent media comes at the very end of the list.
Debate is healthy, and debate is needed. As an avid gamer, one who has admittedly played a number of games both violent and not, I for one welcome the debate. As the Senator insists there are millions of responsible gun owners, so too are there millions of responsible gamers, and between myself, and the millions of other gamers not involved in a horriffic act of violence, I know that solely playing a violent game will not lead to actual violence.